Thursday, 4 June 2015

All should champion the true spirit of tripartism

Undoubtedly, unions in Singapore do enjoy some form of power but unlike its counterparts in some countries, the unions in Singapore would try to avoid any form of industrial actions.
Because of the sensible practises of unionism in Singapore, there is practically no labour unrest. Employers, unions and the government would try to cooperate with each other so they could serve the nation and the workers well.

In SIA, tripartism is working very well and as a result there is no confrontation between the company and its unions. However, there are some management individuals who may be unwilling to work with the unions. They feel that as management staff they should be allowed to do things their own ways and do not seek to cooperate with the unions. This sort of attitude displayed by the uninformed management staff would usually create tension in the work place.

Let me illustrate my point.

A colleague of mine once refused to allow a union chief into the classroom to brief the trainee cabin crew about the advantages of joining the union. The practise of allowing the unionists to speak to each training class is a normal thing. My colleague's reason for not allowing the union chief into his classroom was because he felt it was a waste of his time.
The issue was brought up to his superiors. Meanwhile, on one of his nightstops at a overseas station, he was spotted wearing an attire unbecoming of a crew executive. The matter was brought to the attention of his superiors and he was reprimanded.

Another case was that of a management staff who forced a crew whom he thought was overweight to appear in the office (it was the crew's off-day) in his crew uniform for inspection. The crew pleaded with the staff not to humiliate him in the presence of the office people but instead asked that he appeared in his civilian clothes. Even when the union chief intervened, the said management staff refused to budge.

There are such anti union characters who would try to disrupt the spirit of tripartism. If left unchecked it will generate ill feelings among the unionists,crew and the management.